In the sixteenth century, poems in blazon format were very popular. Blazon is a technique that “described the position and relation of one picture to another”. (The Overview of “Sonnet 130”, Woolway). This technique was to illustrate the main features of the subject, usually a female body. Popular blazon would start from the bottom to the top of the body. For example, like hair, eyes, lips, breasts, and so on. Occasionally, it would start from the bottom to top, starting with feet, legs and so on. Woolway points, “This form was well suited to the style of courtly love poetry that was flourishing at the time, as it allowed writers to project an idea of an idealized and distant woman whose features they could admire from afar” (The Overview of “Sonnet 130”).
From the beginning, readers could easily define the subject Shakespeare portrays. The Mistress was detailed in humorous tone, which negates the typical blazon. The striking first four lines of the poem contradict the common blazon. Traditionally, blazon is to compliment and praise the subject’s features, and not to insult, which in this case, the Mistress. However, Shakespeare does not ignore the format and goes forth describing her from head to toe. Shakespeare started the first four lines picturing the Mistress’ eyes, lips, breast and hair. Symbolically, eyes, lips breast and hair are essential cliché features of a female beauty. Nevertheless, from his intense sketch of her features, he portrayed that she does not carry any representation of beauty. From the simile in line one; Shakespeare negates the comparison of the Mistress to the sun: “My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;” (Woolway). Line two to three mentions the shades like red coral, and “dun”. Coral is a fami...
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...simile and metaphor brought enriching imagery to the readers. The poem was written with insults and mockery, but with the unexpected flattery showed the author’s love for the Mistress and his poetic practices of love through volta.
Works Cited
Napierkowski, Marie Rose. “Overview: ‘Sonnet 130.’” Poetry for Students 1 (1998): n. pag. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 23 Mar. 2012.
Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 130.” Literature: A Portable Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. 467. Print.
“Volta.” Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 1995. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. .
Woolway, Joanne. “An overview of “Sonnet 130”.” Poetry for Students: n. pag. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 23 Mar. 2012.
In “Sonnet,” Billy Collins satirizes the classical sonnet’s volume to illustrate love in only “…fourteen lines…” (1). Collins’s poem subsists as a “Sonnet,” though there exists many differences in it countering the customarily conventional structure of a sonnet. Like Collins’s “Sonnet,” Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” also faces incongruities from the classic sonnet form as he satirizes the concept of ideal beauty that was largely a convention of writings and art during the Elizabethan era. Although these poem venture through different techniques to appear individually different from the classic sonnet, the theme of love makes the poems analogous.
Bradstreet, A., & Kallich, M. (1973). A Book of the Sonnet: Poems and Criticism. New York: Twayne Publishers.
"Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal [but] which the reader recognizes as his own." (Salvatore Quasimodo). There is something about the human spirit that causes us to rejoice in shared experience. We can connect on a deep level with our fellow man when we believe that somehow someone else understands us as they relate their own joys and hardships; and perhaps nowhere better is this relationship expressed than in that of the poet and his reader. For the current assignment I had the privilege (and challenge) of writing an imitation of William Shakespeare’s "Sonnet 87". This poem touched a place in my heart because I have actually given this sonnet to someone before as it then communicated my thoughts and feelings far better than I could. For this reason, Sonnet 87 was an easy choice for this project, although not quite so easy an undertaking as I endeavored to match Shakespeare’s structure and bring out his themes through similar word choice.
Goodman, Brent. “Sonnet 43.” Poetry for Students. Ed. Napiekowski, Marie Rose. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 240-242. Print.
During the “sixteenth” century, poetry was expected to follow the popular "Blazon" style for which is used to define heraldry. “This method of depiction was translated into poetry and was used to portray the features of the human, usually the female body. A typical blazon would start with the hair and work downward, focusing on eyes, ears, lips, neck, breasts and so on.” (Woolway). In other words, the speaker describes the physical beauty of a lover 's body as it focuses mostly on the woman’s characteristics. "My mi...
Closely related to subversive comparisons, Shakespeare also makes use of exaggerated similes. Unlike his contemporaries, Shakespeare introduces his Mistress in negative conventional terms. “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun / cor...
Steele, Felicia Jean. "Shakespeare's SONNET 130." Explicator 62.3 (2004): 132-137. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2013.
Spencer, Edmund. “Amoretti: Sonnet 54”. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Gen. ed. David Simpson. 8th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 2006. 904. Print.
This Shakespearean sonnet consisting of 14 lines can be subdivided into 3 parts. In each part, the poet uses a different voice. He uses 1st person in the first part, 3rd person in the 2nd part and 2nd person in the last part. Each section of the poem has a different theme that contributes to the whole theme of the poem.
..., D. E. (2009, November 7). The Sonnet, Subjectivity, and Gender. Retrieved October 11, 2011, from mit.edu: www.mit.edu/~shaslang/WGS/HendersonSSG.pdf
The love that a person has for someone is not the same for other people. They can look at their love through nature or just by their beauty. Shakespeare has the ability to explain his love for someone by using nature as a reference. Looking at two of Shakespeare’s sonnets 18 and 130 explore the differences and similarities between one another. In Sonnet 18 and 130, both show Shakespeare’s knowledge in developing his love and respect.
Shakespeare, William. "Sonnet 130." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: compact edition. Ed. David Damrosch. Addison-Wesley, 2000. 556.
Bender, Robert M., and Charles L. Squier, eds. The Sonnet: An Anthology. New York: Washington Square P, 1987.
Through the form of sonnet, Shakespeare and Petrarch both address the subject of love, yet there are key contrasts in their style, structure, and in the manner, each approaches their subjects. Moreover, in "Sonnet 130," Shakespeare, in fact, parodies Petrarch's style and thoughts as his storyteller describes his mistress, whose "eyes are in no way as the sun" (Shakespeare 1918). Through his English poem, Shakespeare seems to mock the exaggerated descriptions expanded throughout Petrarch’s work by portraying the speaker’s love in terms that are characteristic of a flawed woman not a goddess. On the other hand, upon a review of "Sonnet 292" from the Canzoniere, through “Introduction to Literature and Arts,” one quickly perceives that Petrarch's work is full of symbolism. However, Petrarch’s utilization of resemblance and the romanticizing of Petrarch's female subject are normal for the Petrarchan style.
The fourteen line sonnet is constructed by three quatrains and one couplet. With the organization of the poem, Shakespeare accomplishes to work out a different idea in each of the three quatrains as he writes the sonnet to lend itself naturally. Each of the quatrain contains a pair of images that create one universal idea in the quatrain. The poem is written in a iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Giving the poem a smooth rhyming transition from stanza to